Raw and unedited footage of the American troups advancing across dying nazi-germany int ht
Raw and unedited footage of the American troups advancing across dying nazi-germany int hte spring of 1945, shot by special embedded cameramen.
(more)
(less)
Added: 3 weeks ago
Views: 122
Fine young Americans, as a European, I am concerned about the role your great nation is pl
Fine young Americans, as a European, I am concerned about the role your great nation is playing in the world today. But I have an enormous respect for the American Army in World War II, for the GI 's that fought and died to liberate Europe. I think I have read every book that deals with the American Army during Word War II.
I saw the movie 'The last days of Patton', about the famous American General George S. Patton (1885-1945) in World War II. It 's about the last months of his life before he was killed in a car accident in december 1945.
This is a crucial scene, in which Patton is relieved of his command by his boss (and former friend) Eisenhower. I think the two characters are very well casted. They resemble very well the pictures of the real Eisenhower and Patton I know.
Also the difference in personality between the two great men: Eisenhower, the diplomat and politician (he later became President of the United States), and Patton, the pompous, brutal and arrogant mouth.
There are some very nice statements in it. Although a brilliant strategist, Patton was notorious for his arrogant big mouth, which put him always in serious troubles with Dwight 'Ike' Eisenhower, Supreme Alied Commander. The word he most often used was 'suns-of-bitches'.
His worst offence was the slapping in the face of two wounded American soldiers who suffered from shell-shock. He accused them of being cowards. This incident, in Sicily 1943, provoked furious reactions of both the American press and his military superiors Eisenhower and Bradley.
The American press compared Patton with Hitler, and they portayed him in a cartoon with a swastica underneath of his boot, while kicking the two soldiers in the butt.
As a result, Patton was relieved from his command, only to play a military role again after the landings in Normandy in juli-august 1944. Then he broke through the German defensive lines with the Sherman-tanks of his 3rd Army, dashing to liberate Paris. He is also best known for the relieving of the encircled American forces in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes (december 1944).
Anyway, the movie I saw yesterday is not about his military achievements, but about the very complex human character that Patton was. He was brilliant, arrogant and completely undiplomatic, but he also wrote beautiful love poems for his eternally beloved wife Bea.
He had a fenomenal knowledge about human history. He foresaw the clashing between the Americans and the Soviet Russians. In a quote of which I don 't remember the exact words he says:
"The war with Germany is over, they say. They think we killed the last dictator in history. They 're wrong. Every generation gives birth to a new dictator."
We now all know these were prophetic words. Think of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Saddam Hoessein, Bush (?).
While discussing the anti-fraternising policy of Eisenhower that forbade American soldiers to flirt with German girls and women, he said:
"You can 't control sex. All that moralistic garbage! When morals go down, morale goes up."
In this movie there are also beautiful statements and words of other characters:
Patton and General Harper, his Chief-of-Staff, are driving in a car. They notice that Willy, Patton 's beloved dog, is scratching itself. Then Harper says:
"They say a resonable number of fleas is good for a dog. Keeps him from brooding...over being a dog."
I interpret this as follows: people need all these little problems and frustrations to complain about. These they need, in order not to think about the human existential situation, such as the eternal human lack, the passing away of things and people, and the inevitable death...
(more)
(less)
Added: 1 month ago
Views: 2,258
I am Igor Ilyanovitsch, born in Ossetiograd in Siberia in 1924. I was to marry Olga, a fin
I am Igor Ilyanovitsch, born in Ossetiograd in Siberia in 1924. I was to marry Olga, a fine girl with blonde hairs. Her father has two cows and three pigs.
In september 1942, just after my 18th birthday, I answered to the call of Comrad Stalin to defend Stalingrad against the fascist German invaders. I crossed the Volga. Happily we weren 't attacked by the Stukas. When we reached the border, they shouted: 'The first one in line takes the rifle. When the first one is killed, the second one takes the rifle'. I wasn 't the lucky one, because I hadn ' t a rifle.
I was to follow sergeant Puslov into the hell of Stalingrad. My battle for Holy Russia lasted only for three minutes, when I was killed by German machine gun bullets..
Screenshots of Playstation 2 'Call of Duty. Finest Hour', a game I played myself. Just like Igor, I only survived for a couple of minutes in the hell of Stalingrad...
(Don 't ever forget Russia payed the blood of 20 million deads for our freedom against fascist Germany!)
(more)
(less)
Added: 2 months ago
Views: 178
|
